Evoque early owners issues, what doesn't work, what breaks?

My order is coming in around Xmas and before I get the car I thought it would be good to know what weak spots are emerging in the first few weeks of ownership. Let's share niggles, faults and breakages.

I have read the following:

Rear wiper is flimsy and can break if operated when frozen to screen.
Some have had issues with electric boot opening closing.
The Coupes reear seat access is painfully slow
I noticed the rear sill trim on a Dynamic had fallen off a car (probably a scrape).
Automatic gear box can throw a fault and car refuses to move.

What else is there?

Experienced Land Rover owners tend to be forgiving over a few niggles as the cars themselves have so many redeeming characteristics. Our Freeloader and Defender have been our most reliable vehicles ever with no faults.

However the FFRR can't go for three months without some fault or other involving major warranty work (3 fuel injectors, replaced Webasto heater, Alternator, active lighting ECU,wobbly fuel guage, remote heater software failure, uneven idle on start up, TPMS fault, glove box not opening, battery drain and failing to start). That is the main reason why I am not getting another Vogue.

Absolutely agree. We're on our 4th Freelander, and you certainly get to know the Landrover Assistance folk. But still well worth it, you just can't beat the 4x4 kit on a Landrover. Roll on 2015 and the new Defender!

So far I have had no problems and as far as I can see the build quality is as good, if not better, than my previous BMW.

3 months in now and everything works as it should. No problems at all. Build is up there with the best that ive had before.

Thanks for the replies, it looks like my owning experience should be much better than with the FFRR.

Seems the car is pretty reliable, are there any more faults than from other owners?

I was in a local LR Dealer last week when they bought my 2010 Model FL2 I was speaking about reliability & they said this time last year when they sent LR an invoice for warranty claims (not a specific defined period though) the bill was £24,000......This year for the same period it was £1400 so I guess this says something.

There will always be niggles with any new model. I don't think it's fair you are comparing a 2007 Vogue with a 2012 Evoque. 2010MY was a big year for Land Rover and the reliability of the L322 has greatly improved since then.

Yep, I had a few issues. I was one of the first to buy in Canada, and have had the vehicle for a month now.

1. The casing around the airbag in the windscreen's right-hand pillar is slightly dislodged at the top.

2. The electric rear door (or hatch as Brits call it) is temperamental, it closes occasionally but always opens

3. The seats develop butt-squeeze for heavy passengers (Prestige model) due to a hard lip under the side pads, and the lumbar inflate is hardly noticeable, although I expect these problems to get better as the premium leather wears-in

4. The windscreen wipers are too high when not in use, but they are easy to lower and lowering them improves performance and style

5. Dont fiddle with the suspension modes if you are at a stop light, as it wont give the car a chance to get its ducklings back in a line when the light turns green

6. The Nav sucks. The interface is a button-filled mess that confines the viewable map area to 4-inches square. It is difficult and slow to use, requiring too many presses to do things. The Nav could be more sensibly laid out, and sometimes works faster, e.g when it spins out of control while you try to browse forward. (Software updates could fix the Nav interface, usability and response, but only if its developer, Navteq, is adequately persuaded by Land Rover).

7. Not all USB devices will work, e.g. my iPod shuffle, and too many video file formats will not play.

8. The foot rests both sides of the car are a wee bit wee for big feet.

9. The wing mirrors are big and thus noisy at high-speed, but quieter if folded in (if you dare).

10. Cornering at high speed results in mild-oversteer, which really surprised me, I expected the opposite. This too could be corrected by a software tweak, maybe at your dealer.

I have yet to take my car back to the dealer to address the above issues, but I am not in any hurry. I trust Range Rover to fix everything and be happy to do so, their customer service is excellent.

Dude, no car is ever perfect, and yes, we Evoque owners can list plenty of imperfections. But, I paid 2-cars worth of cash to buy this vehicle, and I think the Evoque is worth 3-cars. Yep, expensive is another imperfection, which kinda goes with the brand.

I believe that nothing else in the market comes close to the Evoque, at the moment; in performance, handling, style, or sheer exhilaration of ownership. You feel like a "class act" driving it.

The 17-speaker Meridian sound system is unreal, it can light up your soul. The engineering and design thought that has gone into making the Evoque fit the driver, and anticipate the driver's desires, is exceptional... And I have not even taken it off-road yet -- so, I'm not even a properly qualified owner yet!

Anyway, I could list another 10-imperfections if you like, but you won't buy into a list of imperfections, you will buy into a feeling, and the Evoque has feeling in spades! I just don't know how you can put that feeling stuff in a list.

Update on list of potential faults, I am going to draw a distinction between things going wrong or breaking (failures) versus design niggles (which can be a matter of opinion). To keep it simple I will just list failures.

Thanks to Olde for a very complete list of issues with his car, two of which are failures.

So here is the list of known failures, which is surprisingly short:

Issues with electric boot opening closing
Automatic gear box can throw a fault and car refuses to move
Adaptive headlight failure
Windscreen external trim dislodged
The casing around the airbag in the windscreen's right-hand pillar is slightly dislodged at the top


Any other component failures out there, there must be some more?

You missed some - if you look through the technical threads or my evoque threads, there was one member who had a complaint of his tank running dry when his indicator still was above the red empty zone, and another to do with a fuel tank/cap relief system? Search on fuel, it shud bring it up i think.